Hey TOTSE,

Last year at college, I got my own personal line so I could pirate shit 24/7. This year, I couldn't afford it, and I'm somewhat weary about doing so because universities don't like it very much when you burn through their bandwidth with bittorrent. A few people at my school have been sued for downloading music, but am I right in assuming they were just limewire users? If I encrypt bittorrent/run peer guardian/use proxies to get the torrents initially, can they bitch about anything but the amount of bandwidth I'm using? Absolutely no "high ports" are blocked on this network, by the way, and there is no real bandwidth limit.

So basically, if I download shit, can they tell what it is and catch me if it's encrypted?

Thanks.

The real question is.. why are people still using P2P?

The real question is.. why are people still using P2P?

No, actually, the real question is whether or not I can get caught using Bittorrent.

I process around 40-50 infringement notices on our network every week. So the answer is, yes, you can be caught using bittorrent and your university will probably release your information to anyone who makes a proper request.

Don't count on a blacklist, and encryption doesn't help you if you're downloading from a MediaSentry, BayTSP, etc. endpoint.

No, actually, the real question is whether or not I can get caught using Bittorrent.

My question will become more apparent to you after you read a few more posts which are similar to zips.

Hey TOTSE,

Last year at college, I got my own personal line so I could pirate shit 24/7. This year, I couldn't afford it, and I'm somewhat weary about doing so because universities don't like it very much when you burn through their bandwidth with bittorrent. A few people at my school have been sued for downloading music, but am I right in assuming they were just limewire users? If I encrypt bittorrent/run peer guardian/use proxies to get the torrents initially, can they bitch about anything but the amount of bandwidth I'm using? Absolutely no "high ports" are blocked on this network, by the way, and there is no real bandwidth limit.

So basically, if I download shit, can they tell what it is and catch me if it's encrypted?

Thanks.

Ive used Limewire/frost wire via "university connections" and been fine. So have many others. But torrents are like a completely different ball park. A guy i work with was caught using bit-torrent.....so i do not use that under their connection since they seemingly have an "eye" for it. Although i have used it a few times with no problems. Just depends. Ive heard numerous warnings about using p2p programs from people but ive never been confronted/sued and ive been using them programs since the original napster(before they were sued) was out back in the day...

Judging from the responses, it appears as though I'll have to be content using newsgroups, rapidshit, megaupload, and IRC to get files. Damn.

You paid for your own personal line last year, right? but can't afford it this year. Why not just pay the very small fee of rapidshare and use that service for the time being. It's really not that bad at all. The service is cheap, the bandwidth limit is reasonable and the content that remains on the RS servers are growing. with a little googling, it shouldn't be too hard to find what your looking for.

I agree, rapidshare is shit without the premium account, but with one it offers so much more. You also have the choice to extend your account at the end of the month, so if you're dissatisfied with the service then you can move on without extending.

You paid for your own personal line last year, right? but can't afford it this year. Why not just pay the very small fee of rapidshare and use that service for the time being. It's really not that bad at all. The service is cheap, the bandwidth limit is reasonable and the content that remains on the RS servers are growing. with a little googling, it shouldn't be too hard to find what your looking for.

I agree, rapidshare is shit without the premium account, but with one it offers so much more. You also have the choice to extend your account at the end of the month, so if you're dissatisfied with the service then you can move on without extending.

Because http is a horrible protocol for downloading anything?


Just use bittorrent with web-based UI (I recommend Deluge) and scp the files over, OP.

Because http is a horrible protocol for downloading anything?.

I have seen you making a similar comment in the past. Enlighten me, prom?

I have seen you making a similar comment in the past. Enlighten me, prom?

Okay. Let's compare BitTorrent and HTTP here.


Resumed Downloads: Bittorrent can, only certain http servers and clients can (and that's based on file size and incredibly hard to get right).
Multi-Source Downloads: BitTorrent can, and it's built to. Http can't.
Sustainability: BitTorrent means that even if the source is killed after the initial upload, the file can survive. HTTP can't.
Distributability: BitTorrent will let you download 5kb/s from each peer. HTTP requires the server's upload bandwidth to match the client's download bandwidth.


BitTorrent is designed for sharing files. HTTP is designed for hypertext. If people started going to bittorrent:// URLs for things like Time Cube in their browsers, I'd be saying the same thing: "BitTorrent isn't designed for hypertext! Use HTTP!".

If you have to use a secure protocol (and BitTorrent is not that) use GNUnet or Freenet. Don't think that HTTP is any sort of solution for filesharing.

Okay. Let's compare BitTorrent and HTTP here.


Resumed Downloads: Bittorrent can, only certain http servers and clients can (and that's based on file size and incredibly hard to get right).
Multi-Source Downloads: BitTorrent can, and it's built to. Http can't.
Sustainability: BitTorrent means that even if the source is killed after the initial upload, the file can survive. HTTP can't.
Distributability: BitTorrent will let you download 5kb/s from each peer. HTTP requires the server's upload bandwidth to match the client's download bandwidth.


BitTorrent is designed for sharing files. HTTP is designed for hypertext. If people started going to bittorrent:// URLs for things like Time Cube in their browsers, I'd be saying the same thing: "BitTorrent isn't designed for hypertext! Use HTTP!".

If you have to use a secure protocol (and BitTorrent is not that) use GNUnet or Freenet. Don't think that HTTP is any sort of solution for filesharing.

Oh I see, so HTTP is a 'horrible' protocol for downloading, only in comparison to BitTorrent?

Speaking in defence of RapidShare, to which you made your comment about, I'm pretty sure once you obtain a premium account you can resume downloads and it even has segmented downloading.

I think your argument is quite weak, to be honest.

Oh I see, so HTTP is a 'horrible' protocol for downloading, only in comparison to BitTorrent?

Speaking in defence of RapidShare, to which you made your comment about, I'm pretty sure once you obtain a premium account you can resume downloads and it even has segmented downloading.

I think your argument is quite weak, to be honest.

Well, you can replace bittorrent with gnutella, fasttrack, dc, emule, GNUnet, and Freenet. BitTorrent is just my protocol of choice.

Also, resuming downloads with HTTP is brutally hacked. All it does is start downloading at the point in the file where it presumes you left off at. It doesn't support checksums of the parts, it doesn't do any of the error checking other protocols do -- it just picks up where it thinks it left off. The problem there is, if the download was aborted, it's probably because of network failure, and if the network failed, the last bit is probably munged anyways. Also, you still can't rebut any of the other points I made. I'm sure wikipedia has a nice chart about this.

Yes HTTP is not ideal for downloading large files, but when torrents/p2p simply aren't available a premium rapidshare account is a pretty good alternative.

Yes HTTP is not ideal for downloading large files, but when torrents/p2p simply aren't available a premium rapidshare account is a pretty good alternative.

If you're willing to pay for a rapidshare account you can easily pay for a VPS. Torrent to there and then get the files inside the uni's network with rsync.